World Agriculture Watch: Coming Soon FAFO12

by Jeffrey A Brez

This afternoon, after IFAD's Governing Council ended, the Farmers' Forum took advantage of the fact that so many stakeholders were still in town to have a final round of thematic events. I attended a session hosted by the FAO and CIRAD on a proposal for a World Agriculture Watch (WAW background in English French Spanish). The concept is founded on the notion that while we do have a lot of agricultural information and data available, there are important gaps in quality, quantity, availability and analysis. Particularly, we are lacking a tool with which to track and analyze trends in transformations and impacts in agricultural and farming systems that affect the world's 500 million smallholder farms. The discussion focussed on how to ensure that farmers' organizations can contribute to and benefit from the WAW. Here are the three presentations made, and below them a few thoughts on the discussion that followed.

Alessandra da Costa Lunas of COPROFAM presented thechallenges family and indigenous producers are facing in Latin America.

Apresentação observatorio mundial de agricultura

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Alexander Muller, Assistant Director-General Natural Resources at FAO presented the rationale for a World Agriculture Watch.

Ifadp farmers forumam

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Patrick Caron, General Director at CIRAD, looked at some of the mechanics of assessing structural changes and impacts in agricultural and farming systems in an integrated way.

Presentation caron v8

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Esther Penunia (Philippines) of the Asian Farmers Association for Sustainable Rural Development set the tone by saying that while there is potential in WAW, it must include bottom up information and data that is already being generated by farmers' organizations to be a WOW! Ousseni Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso) of ROPPA urged that existing regional initiatives such as Agrimet not be duplicated, but complemented. Carlos Sere, IFAD's Chief Development Strategist advised that any new data system set up be sustainable, use an open data model approach that allows inputs from and useability for a variety of stakeholders, know its own boundaries (what questions it can and cannot answer), and have a reliable system to guarantee data quality.

What Will Rio Herald for Agriculture? #IFADGC

by Jeffrey A Brez

Dr. Lindiwe Majele Sibanda of FANRPAN, introducing herself as the daughter of tomato farmers, this afternoon inspired IFAD’s governors and attendees with her compelling call to put farmers first to allow them to produce food sustainably to feed a growing urban population.

She pointed out that there is a disjoint between technology and policy: the technologies are there (soil management, animal management, water harvesting) but policies don’t give poor rural farmers the tools to use them. These sustainable technologies need to be adapted to local conditions and then adopted by farmers - but investment must enable this. A policy process that does not enable this adaptation and adoption, she explained, has robbed African farmers of their natural assets, sending them into a downward spiral of poverty and environmental degradation. 20 years ago yields were double what they are today, she remembered, and farmers could make a decent living.

How to bridge the gap? She observed that governments took action when the food price crisis hit a few years ago. They had to, under strong pressure from civil society. In an acute crisis it is more likely for policymakers and political leaders to act. In slow onset environmental crises such as climate change the impetus to act can be less strong. She cited the lack of political leadership and commitment giving the example of the 2004 CAADP pledge taken in Maputo to dedicate 10% of national budgets in Africa to agricultural investment and lamenting the small number of countries (10) that have “put their money where their mouth is” to date.

A silo approach pervades development planning and is damaging the rural poor farmer. She gave the example of climate talks where for years agriculture was ignored – and even considered a “dirty word” - because it wasn’t an “environment” sector, despite the fact that agriculture is the most sector most impacted by climate change. The silo approach, she said, is killing us by slowing down policy progress and investments. She was relieved that we are close to having an agriculture work programme under the scientific and technical advisory body of the UNFCCC (SBSTA), which will be decided at the next climate negotiations in Qatar. Better late than never!

For Rio+20 she was optimistic that the main 7 areas of focus – food, jobs, energy, cities, water, oceans and disasters - were the right mix for rural poor people and smallholders. She counted three things we need to achieve “the future we want” in Rio and beyond. First, bold political leadership. Second commitments to invest in sustainable agriculture and food security with smallholders. Third a framework that takes an integrated approach to investing in agriculture to create green “dignified” jobs, engage youth and empower poor rural women who, despite producing 70% of the food only own 2% of the land.

Environmentally Sustainable Smallholder Agriculture is Possible #IFADGC

By Jeffrey A Brez

The IFAD Governing Council began this morning with Rwandan president Paul Kagame telling us that environmentally sustainable smallholder agriculture is possible. IFAD president Kanayo Nwanze then reminded us in his Statement that environmental degradation and climate change are damaging smallholder farming systems.

With that challenge laid out before them, IFAD’s governors and other guests were ready to engage in a discussion on how smallholders can "Feed the World, Protect the Planet" (09:45-11:45), led by 5 expert panellists (see programme), and joined by viewers via the live webcast and social media channels (I also tweeted live from @jeffbrez).

The panellists gave excellent examples of sustainable approaches that are working, and in many cases being scaled up. Pamela Anderson of the CGIAR-affiliated International Potato Center explained how a new multi-functional smallholder agriculture provides a range of livelihood opportunities within households and communities, giving smallholders a “portfolio” of income opportunities, and spreading their risk. Nivedita Banerji of NGO Samaj Pragati Sahayog provided excellent examples of government incentives for smallholders to invest in durable assets and manage sustainable use of acquifers through mapping. Andre Leu of IFOAM explained how smallholders are the centrepiece of IFOAM’s policies on agricultural intensification through “eco-functionality” – where eco-processes are used to increase yields.

Bruce NcNamer of TechnoServe focussed on the imperative of creating business opportunities with smallholders through market systems and value chains that work, on top of which environmental sustainability should be “overlayed.” It was stressed that there are many steps in the value chain where sustainability needs to be injected with a big role for smallholders. Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Rural Development described successes in the Philippines agrarian reform program that empowers smallholder communities to manage their natural resources for present and future generations.

There appear to be millions of healthy green shoots of approaches and technologies, virtual shelves stacked with sacks of potent fertilizing government policies, heady flows of energetic ideas on empowering women and farmers’ organizations and incentivizing youth to stay in or return to rural areas. The private sector appears poised to invest in relationships with smallholders. But where in all of this is our next green revolution – the sustainable one that will feed the world (9 billion people by 2050!) and protect the planet?

The comprehensive change of mindsets needed to open the floodgates so that all boats will be raised up through a concerted global upscaling effort remains elusive. A lot has changed and more ears are open than ever. We’re making progress, but there is still work to be done. Join us via the webcast today and tomorrow (including side events that you can watch here) and help us to increase the momentum we are building towards enabling poor rural people to escape from and remain out of poverty through more productive and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems. Rio is just around the corner.

(double check times and programme schedule here).

Learn more about IFAD’s ENRM Policy.

Future for Smallholders at Rio+20? #FAFO12

This morning I attended (and tweeted from @jeffbrez) the Farmers’ Forum thematic working group on “Engaging Rio + 20.” The room was packed and the tension in the room I felt was equal parts optimism and frustration.

Frustration came from some who felt that the Rio+20 zero draft outcome document does not put a square focus on smallholders (see Food Security section paras 64-66). Some felt uncomfortable with the ramifications of a “green economy” focus that could turn ecosystem services and biodiversity into economic “goods” to be traded and speculated upon in open markets. There was frustration from some representatives about government focus on investment in urban infrastructure, despite the fact that a majority of people live in rural areas. Lack of reliable land tenure and insecure access to natural resources were mentioned as persisting obstacles to smallholder, family farming and indigenous peoples’ wellbeing.

On the positive side, the farmers’ organizations in the room felt that if they are strategic and coherent in their approach, that Rio+20 could be an opportunity to make progress on these frustrating points. The associations generally expressed appreciation for the Rome-based Agencies joint submission to the zero draft document, as well as to the Farmer’s Major Group submission. There was optimism that if consensus can be reached on how to engage in the process and exactly what the outcome objective should be, important progress for the rural poor was not out of reach.

One key hurdle to overcome will be connecting farmers organizations worldwide to enable their collective voice to be heard leading up to and at Rio+20. The associations may request IFAD to support their efforts to organize and navigate the dizzying mix of events and procedures. If they do I look forward to being a part of our partnership.

#sfrome: Climate-Smart Agriculture – Yes, we can! (21)

Written by Jeff Brez

Yesterday we had an intense and lively discussion on “What is climate smart agriculture” using the “fish bowl” knowledge sharing method. Fish bowl means that there is a core group of speakers while the rest of the room, arranged in circles around them, listens in. The fun part is that the core group evolves as audience members join the “inner circle” one at a time, and the original speakers leave, one at a time, so that the discussion is enriched by lots of different perspectives.

Our core group consisted of Elwyn Granger-Jones (IFAD), Carlo Scaramella (WFP), Marja-Liisa Tapio-Biström (FAO) and Cristina Grandi (IFOAM). Our audience was not shy, and everyone had experience and specific knowledge to contribute. More than half of the 30 participants entered the “fish bowl” during the course of the session.

There was no consensus on exactly what climate smart agriculture is or should be. But – there are boundaries that seem to be forming. For example, most agreed that perhaps 80% of CSA is made up of what we already know how to do and are trying to do (sustainable agriculture approaches such as integrated pest management, organic and conservation agriculture). However, there is a tricky and evasive 20% of CSA that is new, linked to emerging challenges that climate change brings about, and riddled with uncertainty.

There was also consensus that the concept is strongly influencing the planning and thinking of the ARD development community, and that it presents an opportunity to catalyze the move towards an integrated, cross-sectoral approach to agriculture and food security linking it with other challenges to sustainable development and poverty reduction. Yes, mindsets are being changed already, but what is missing is a global vision for agriculture, including the role of smallholders, that climate smart practices would fit into. We need this!

Speakers also agreed that in order to make the transition to climate-smart agriculture happen, more needs to be done: to better assess the vulnerability of farmers, including smallholder farmers; to create policy environments that incentivize and reward climate smart practices; to connect smallholder farmers to seasonal climate predictions and trends through sms and other ICT solutions for short and long term planning; to support education and extensions services; to facilitate access to new technologies like drought resistant seeds; and, to mainstream CSA into agricultural and rural development policies, because in spite of new climate funds, that is where the bulk of the money will remain.

Perhaps the strongest point of consensus was that farmers are natural adapters. Climate change is happening too fast and creating too much unpredictability for them, though. So there is no time to waste in helping the poorest to adapt. In addition – let’s not forget that the majority of the best examples of adaptive systems are traditional practices that have been with us for centuries. Case in point is the oases of the Maghreb. In these systems, water is used efficiently and livestock needs are integrated into cropping systems, for example. Let’s not waste time or money to reinvent the wheel.

Day 6 – Conservation Agriculture: Bearing the Torch from Brazil To Africa

Greetings from Foz do Iguaçu – the town of Iguassu Falls – where we are wrapping up our intense workshop. We began the day with presentations and discussions – including an eye-opener from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA): the cost of environmental degradation in Africa ranges from 4% to 12% of GDP! Enormous.

Day 5 conservation agriculture project breadbasket field workshop in brazil

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Then we visited the Itaipu Dam, the operators of which provide payments to municipalities along the reservoir lake to provide the environmental service of implementing no-till agriculture to reduce siltation at the dam. The dam provides 25% of Brazil’s energy.

So how to adapt and adopt the Brazilian experience to the African reality? AGRA’s Rebbie Harawa called on all workshop participants to be "torchbearers" in their respective countries, to promote and support conservation agriculture practices and reverse the trend of degradation. The teams spent the afternoon and evening working with IAPAR, FEBRAPDP, FEPAGRO and CIRAD coaches preparing ideas to present to the group tomorrow - the last day of the workshop - on how what they have learned and observed can be applied in sub-saharan Africa. We will post all presentations early next week in a wrap up blog.

So that's it from Brazil - but we will be back with another post from IFAD HQ in Rome on Monday.

This blog prepared by Jeff Brez and Waltteri Katajamaki.

Day 4 – Conservation Agriculture Needs an Enabling Environment

After a dinner reception hosted by the mayor of the municipality of Pato Branco on Tuesday evening, the workshop resumed Wednesday morning slightly later than usual. We travelled to Coronel Vivida to learn about microcredit opportunities for smallholder farmers in the state of Paraná, after which we had a chance to visit an idyllic and successful organic family farm outside the town (fish pond surrounded by indigenous fruit trees, pasture up the hill and beyhond that sugar cane).

(The below ppt was delivered on Day 3, and has great background on conservation agriculture and cover crops)

Day 3 conservation agriculture field workshop project breadbasket calegari, iapar, july 12, 2011

View more presentations from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development

Thirteen years ago Adir Lino (at left) completed his farm's transition into organic production. He chose organic farming because he could not make ends meet with conventional (chemical / input intensive) farming of soybeans and noticed negative health effects on his family. Today his farm has high levels of diversity, and all of the production is integrated into one system (the meat and honey production is not fully organic). This, Adir says, has been the key for success. For the Paraná region the farm is relatively small – a total of 17 hectares, half of which is under cultivation while the other half is kept as a reserve forest (more than the federally mandated 20%).

The farm uses only family labour, with Adir, his wife and his parents working together . And it sounds like there might be quite a bit of work to do with all the different products of the farm: sugar cane, corn, beans, rice, fruits integrated in the agroforestry system, cassava, vegetables, honey, fish, poultry, dairy… You name it! Where possible, the production is organic, and minimum tillage and cover crops such as black oat, ryegrass and radish are used. In addition, agroprocessing is being done at the farm to further add value to the products, which are then sold to Brazil’s school feeding programme, in regional markets, and to customers directly at the farm.

Today, Adir’s family farm is a shining example of what can be achieved through using diversified and integrated farming systems. As workshop participant August Basson, from Lesotho, put it, Adir’s farm is something of a paradise. The question remains as to how these practices can be adapted to the realities of African smallholder farms.

Parana State has seen incredible yield and productivity increases since 1992 thanks to conservation agriculture, but other things have changed, too.

As Dr. Ricardo Ralisch of EMBRAPA and University of Londrina and Danilo Rheinheimer dos Santos of FEPAGRO (Rio Grande Do Sul) tell it, in the 1980s no-till was increasing for big farmers and mechanized (tractor-powered) farms, but smallholders were not in the picture at scale. During this time the research institutes (EMBRAPA, IAPAR, universities) were learning about conservation agriculture to help farmers become more efficient and smallholders more productive. The turning point for smallholders was the introduction of animal traction tools for conservation agriculture, which IAPAR designed. With financing from Monsanto and Semeato, the first 36 prototype animal traction planters, “gralha azuls,” were produced in 1985. They were provided to the extension agency EMATER, who then worked with smallholder farmers, IAPAR and others to introduce conservation agriculture through countless field demonstrations.

Conservation agriculture helped the struggling smallholders who previously produced only grain or cash crops, to develop integrated crop-livestock systems. Now Parana state is a major producer of dairy products, powered by smallholder production.
In 1992, the conservation agriculture federation FEBRADPDP was founded and the revolution was in motion.

During the 1990’s some government support for small farmer programmes came in the form of loans through PRONAF to cooperative investments for agro-processing and storage systems. Work also continued on improving infrastructure including rural roads for market access.

As incomes steadily grew, smallholder communities became more organized and asked municipal leaders and politicians for stronger support. In the 2000s, government investment in smallholders increased through beefed up credit programmes through PRONAF and the creation of a new Ministry for Agrarian Development, which implemented policies and programmes specifically targeting smallholders. One key policy now regulates market for smallholders and includes a programme of direct buying from small farmers by municipalities – each municipality must purchase at least 30% of food it supplies to schools, welfare programmes and military needs from small farms.

Adir Lino accessed credit from PRONAF to buy his agroprocessing equipment (a 5 year group loan at 1.2%/yr interest) and also sells his produce to the municipality, among others. Clearly, his family's success is the result of organic and conservation agriculture approaches together with a strong enabling environment.

Reporting by Jeff Brez and Waltteri Katajamaki

You're Invited: A Conservation Agriculture "Virtual" Field Workshop in Brazil - starts SUNDAY July 10, 2011

posted on behalf of Jeff Brez

Please join Project Breadbasket, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the Brazilian No-Till Federation (FEBRAPDP), EMATER, the LaGuardia Foundation and other partners on a six-day "South-South learning journey" to Parana State to support scaling up of conservation agriculture (CA) among smallholders in Africa. My name is Jeff - responsible for environment and climate learning at IFAD - and I'll be your virtual classmate, linking you directly to the participants.


We will share our daily activities with you each day via blog posts with photos, video interviews and video demonstrations (technology permitting). We hope you will share your experiences, expertise and feedback via social media along the way. Don't be shy - send us your questions!

How can you participate virtually? You can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and on this blog. You can either post your comments here on the blog, or send them as a tweet to @IFADnews (#ENRM). Last but not least you can also post your comment on our Facebook page.

I'll do my best to share the perspectives of the participants - from Brazil, Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Among the contributors to the workshop we also find technical experts from Brazil (FEBRAPDP, EMBRAPA and the Parana State agricultural agency IAPAR). The objective is ambitious: explore how to scale up CA approaches to benefit over 420,000 smallholders in Africa.

So, between now and Sunday the 10^th July (Day 1 of our reporting back to you) send us your comments and questions - feel free to be very specific. We also appreciate if you will share with us below good links on conservation agriculture (a favorite publication, paper or article). You can comment in FRANÇAIS, ESPAÑOL, and PORTUGUÊS, as well as ENGLISH. We are looking forward to your active participation in this exciting South-South cooperation initiative.

Conservation farming in zambia draft paper

View more documents from IFAD International Fund for Agricultural Development.

More background information:

Project Breadbasket Workshop Concept Note

AGRA's 5 Principles of Conservation Agriculture

IFAD Conservation agriculture

FAO Conservation agriculture

Thank you also to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for their support!

Another example of how social media is rural development's best friend

On 1 June 2011, IFAD launched its Environment and Natural Resource Management (ENRM) policy with a webcast discussion on “How to scale up investments in sustainable intensification of agriculture.” We decided to do a social media campaign to market the event, create awareness around the issue, and showcase our policy and case studies. The response was amazing!

We managed to create a lively discussion at IFAD HQ with UN agencies, NGOs, Civil Society, Private Sector, Media, and Academia colleagues and interested people from all over the world. These virtual participants were far from passive viewers. They engaged in the conversation by posting comments on our website and sending their questions via Twitter and Facebook.

Why use social media?

From the beginning we asked ourselves: How can we spread the word about ENRM issues? How can we engage others outside of IFAD in the discussion? How can we make people aware of the conclusions of the policy?

ENRM’s depth and breadth is immense and it is a topic that is of interest not only to experts but also to many others. So the challenge was how can we make sure to get everyone on board? How can we discuss the issues in an inclusive manner without excluding anyone?

We decided that using social media as a channel would enable us to interact with people in a dynamic way. Our decision was based on the fact that effective communications is not a one-way avenue, but rather it’s about the dialogue and interaction. And social media gives everyone with internet and/or cell phone access a voice and opportunity to contribute and join the conversation.

How did we create the social media campaign?

We started working on the campaign 4 weeks before the event. We created a landing page on the IFAD website. This page included information on the policy, on the event, and on the webcast and the social media activities that would take place. We included pictures, videos, and case studies of IFAD’s work in ENRM.

Then we formulated our main messages in tweets (max 140 characters). This is the tricky part. How can we capture the essence of a policy of 30 pages, to a tweet-friendly message in 140 characters? Well, the good thing is that you don’t need to limit yourself to one tweet. We created a number of tweets, some contained information about the event and webcast, some contained statistics from the policy, and others contained questions to the audience to get their feedback on how to scale up.

We sent out the first tweet 10 days before the event, and in the following days we continued sending tweets to spread information and encourage action and feedback. Our UN social media partners engaged and sent out our tweets, spreading the word to all their followers. The Environment and Climate Division informed their networks, and encouraged them to contribute to the discussion. Then on the big day of the launch, during the webcast, we could pose the comments and questions live to the discussants in the room. We connected ideas, and added new voices to a conversation that otherwise would have been limited to the IFAD HQ.

What did we achieve?

• Reached over 50 000 people with over 300 tweets
• People engaged interactively by re-tweeting our messages, and also by sending us comments and questions. We got approximately 100 new followers on Twitter during the campaign, and we were pleased to see that the private sector was engaged in the debate.
• The ENRM site had 1300 unique visitors during the campaign, peeking to about 600 visitors on the day of the event

Our lessons learnt

For a social media campaign to be successful you need to:

• Plan and prepare
• Be clear about: what you want to say, who you want to reach, what you want as an outcome

Most importantly, to be successful on social media, you need to:

• Provide good content that engages people
• Respond to the questions and feedback

Our colleagues at the Environment and Climate Division did an excellent job in engaging with the audience. They asked follow-up questions, and replied to the technical questions. They created a dialogue.

If you missed the event (and even if you participated in the event), make sure you:

• Read some of the tweets
• Visit the event’s photo gallery
• Watch the webcast and take a look at the comments

A #HighFive to Jeff Brez and his team, the Communications team, the excellent moderator Kevin Cleaver, IFAD Associate Vice-President of Programmes as well as all the people out there who followed us and engaged in the conversation. We all look forward to the next IFAD webcast and social media chatter. Until then, make sure you keep in touch with us via our Twitter, Facebook, Blog, YouTube, Blip.TV and Slideshare channels.

Meeting the “Father of the Evergreen Revolution”

Yesterday, May 25, I had the good luck and privilege to be invited to Bioversity International to attend the launch of Professor M. S. Swaminathan’s new book, “In Search of Biohappiness, Biodiversity and Food, Health and Livelihood Security.” Professor Swaminathan has been an inspiration to myself and my colleagues here at IFAD as, together with a range of partners, we developed IFAD’s first Environment and Natural Resource Management Policy. The timing could not have been better: we are launching the policy on June 1, so I took the opportunity to interview the Professor about his views on smallholders, biohappiness and scaling up sustainable agriculture while I was there.

Having been a sports reporter earlier in my career, I rushed in wanting to take as little of his time as possible, ready to “roll tape” immediately, and get out before my time was up (sports figures usually have little time for journalists). But he settled me down immediately and calmly invited me to introduce myself and talk about the topic before starting the interview (view the interview below). Unsurprisingly, he is a true gentleman and a softspoken but deeply persuasive speaker.

He could not be a stronger or more credible advocate: he calls sustainable agriculture, “the only pathway for job-led economic growth.”



In our ENRM Policy, the phrase “evergreen revolution” appears six times – including in our Results and Implementation Matrix (see the annex)! For us at IFAD, scaling up sustainable agriculture as part of an evergreen revolution with smallholders is achievable. Join us (along with our president, Kanayo Nwanze and UNEP’s Executive Director, Achim Steiner) and contribute your experience and concrete suggestions to help focus our the discussion on how to get things moving.

With Professor Swaminathan continuing his research and advocacy – and now even President Obama calling for an evergreen revolution – I think the time is ripe. Do you?